Last ONF visit to Montreal – 1990 ! Returning April 2011 as part of a North American tour, their concert, one night only, will be remembered for years to come.

Italian conductor Daniele Gatti is regularly invited by the most prestigious opera houses in the world – La Scala, Vienna, The Royal Opera and by the finest orchestras – Munich, Vienna, New York, Chicago, to name but a few.

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, French pianist. His concerts around the world and his recordings place him at the top of the most-talented- pianist -list today. His playing is subtle, precise and imaginative. His charismatic personality has won the most sophisticated publics. A truly remarkable artist.

ORCHESTRENATIONALDEFRANCE

Under the auspices of Radio France, the Orchestre National de France was created in 1934 as the first permanent symphony orchestra in France.Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, the first resident conductor, founded the Orchestra’s musical tradition, with a repertoire largely featuring Debussy and Ravel, but also works such as Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, which the French radio was one of the first to broadcast in 1935. After the war, Manuel Rosenthal, André Cluytens, Roger Désormière, Charles Munch, Maurice Le Roux and Jean Martinon carried on the tradition. Lorin Maazel succeeded Sergiu Celibidache as principal guest conductor in 1975, and subsequently became the orchestra’s Music Director. From 1989 to 1998, Jeffrey Tate was Principal Guest Conductor and Charles Dutoit served as Music Director from 1991 to 2001.From 2002-2008, the German conductor Kurt Masur became Music Director of the orchestra after having been musical director of the New York Philharmonic for ten years. Highlights of his six seasons of tenure at the helm of the Orchestra include important cycles devoted to Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, as well as tours abroad: Hong-Kong Festival, Eastern and Central Europe with concerts in Zagreb, Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Talinn, Moscow, Wroclaw and Japan, and an extensive tour in the United States. The Orchestre National was the first orchestra to perform under Maestro Masur’s direction in a special concert in the newly re-opened la Scala Theater in Milan in December 2004 and Maestro Masur and the Orchestre National have begun a residence in the Vienna’s Musikverein in 2008.Under the Maestro Masur’s guidance, the Orchestre National also undertook a series of new educational activities including a partnership with the National Conservatory of Music in Paris. Daniele Gatti became Music Director of the Orchestre National de France in September 2008, succeeding Kurt Masur.During his inaugural season, he led the Orchestra National both in Paris and on tour and he also leads a production of Falstaff at the Theatre des Champs Elysses. Orchestre National de France performs over 70 concerts per year in the major Parisian concert halls and on tours in France and abroad. The Orchestra has toured in Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and the U.S.A. and has featured such artistic luminaries such as Seiji Ozawa, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Sergei Khatchatryan, Joshua Bell, David Fray, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Mario Jao Pires, Nelson Freire, Nicolas Lugansky, and Louis Lortie. Throughout its history, Orchestre National de France has nurtured strong relationships with many of the most prominent conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Antal Dorati, Eugen Joshum, Igor Markevitch, Lovro Von Matacic, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Georges Prêtre, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sir Georg Solti, Evgueni Svetlanov, Bernard Haitink and Yuri Termirkanov.Soloists include Martha Argerich, Claudio Arrau, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Nelson Freire, Vlado Perlemuter, Siatoslav Richter, Arthur Rubinstein, Gidon Kremer, Yo-Yo Ma, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yehudi Menuhin, Jessye Norman, Mstislav Rostropovich and Isaac Stern to name a few. The Orchestre National de France takes pride in having given the first performance of some of the major works of the 20th century, such as Soleil des Eaux by Pierre Boulez (1950), the Turangalîla-Symphony of Olivier Messiaen (first performance in France, 1950), Déserts by Edgar Varèse, whose premiere created a memorable scandal in 1954, Jonchaies by Iannis Xenakis (1977), as well as multiple works by Henri Dutilleux : the Symphony No. 1 (1951), Timbres, Espace, Mouvement (1978), the violin concerto L’Arbre des Songes (1985, with Isaac Stern as soloist), the nocturne for violin and orchestra Sur le même accord (first French performance in 2003), and Correspondances for voice and orchestra (first performance of the revised version in 2004). The life of the orchestra is marked by numerous phonographic recordings.Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande was performed in March 2000 under the direction of Bernard Haitink and awarded “Best classical Recording of the Year” at the Victoires de la Musique classique in 2002, the operas Ivan IV by Bizet, conducted by Michaël Schönwandt (honored by the Académie du Disque Lyrique), Berlioz’s opera Benvenuto Cellini, conducted by John Nelson, Edgar de Puccini conducted by Joël Levi, the Baron Tzigane by Johann Strauss with Armin Jordan, a “Tribute to Evgueni Svetlanov”, the Symphony No. 10 of Shostakovich conducted by Kurt Sanderling, the Symphony No. 6of Tchaikovsky conducted by Riccardo Muti, the Symphony No. 5 of Bruckner with Lovro von Matacic and the opera Mirra by Domenico Alaleona conducted by Juraj Vacuha. The recordings of the Orchestre National under the baton of Kurt Masur feature Beethoven’s Symphonies No. 2 and No. 6,Tchaïkovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and Shoshakovich’s Symphony No. 7. A special“victoire d’honneur” was awarded to the Orchestre National de France on February 2007.